The Project "Energy Literacy for Youth" [ELY] is capacity building for youth education that supports the skills and abilities of young people to become active citizens in the fields of climate change and renewable energy. Energy literacy empowers individuals and communities to make informed decisions regarding energy use, promoting sustainability, and mitigating climate change. The target groups are young people (18-25 years old), educators and trainers, policy makers and general public. There will be special focus on inclusivity, and diversity adressing the knowledge gaps among youth in marginalised groups with different socio-cultural backgrounds, disabilities, etc. The ELY project is financially supported by the EU ERASMUS+ program.

Project partners
Open Plan Foundation (Poland, project lead), MigLAB (Germany), YEE - Youth and Environment Europe (Czech Republic), Dias Media Group (Cyprus), and INFORSE-Europe.

Project Area
The project is implemented in five countries - Poland, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Denmark, and Germany - and will culminate in a final conference in Brussels to share best practices, outcomes, and strategies for broader adoption of the curriculum

Priority Topics:
Environment and fight against climate change, active citizenship of young people, youth entrepreneurship including social entrepreneurship, inclusion and diversity in education and training.

Main objectives:
- Research and understand the needs of the marginalised youth and the existing barriers to become energy literate.
- Create and implement a comprehensive, accessible, joint curriculum that enables active citizenship on the climate crisis and how it relates to our energy needs.
- Increase access to inclusive and accessible online resources about climate crisis and sustainable energy.
- Ensure the maximal and optimal outreach of the curriculum through training, and dissemination activities.

Main Activities are:

Mapping Needs for Youth' Energy Literacy
Develop a research report that analyses the current state of knowledge regarding climate crisis and sustainable energy production among young people aged 18 to 25 in partner countries - thus assessing the needs to be met by the ELY curriculum. This research will include participatory community research methods to provide insights into the awareness and understanding of young people on these critical issues.

Creating a Curriculum for Energy Literacy
Design an innovative curriculum that integrates scientific principles, technical knowledge, and democratic pathways within the context of climate crisis and energy production. While the exact content of the curriculum will be defined during the collaborative work in this work package, the following topics were pre-discussed by the partners during consortium formation and will be included according to the needs assessment:
- What is climate change? The science introduction
- What are the effects of climate change on society: The climate crisis: Climate Justice: Understanding the History and Presence; Acknowledge, Act and Repair Historical Harms; Impact of Northern lifestyle in the global north for the south; Ways into the future.
- What is the energy crisis? Energy Resource Tensions; High Energy Consumption; Resource and material consumption
- Technical answers to the energy crisis: Renewable Energy; Energy efficiency and energy conservation; Small-scale and local solutions for communities.
- Social Answers to the energy crisis: Energy Democracies in Practice; Energy cooperatives and communities vs. Transnational Energy Companies; Just Transition.
- How to be active for the planet? Grassroots and Critical Modes of Action; Democratic and Participatory Principles.

Trainings for Youth Energy Literacy:
- Train the Trainers targeting representatives of organisations working with youth from diverse backgrounds, including less privileged and marginalised groups such as migrant communities and social initiatives operating in economically disadvantaged regions.
- Direct Trainings targeting youth from diverse backgrounds (18-25), including less privileged and marginalised groups such as migrant communities and social initiatives operating in economically disadvantaged regions. These trainings aim to empower youth with fewer opportunities to become active participants in climate change mitigation and sustainable energy production initiatives.

Dissemination & Outreach
- Organise Decentral Energy Conferences. These conferences will be organised in all partner countries to bring together young people, youth educators, and representatives from local stakeholders. The conferences will serve as platforms for discussing the future of energy production in each region, with a focus on energy sources and sustainable practices. Participants will have the opportunity to share knowledge, exchange ideas, and explore potential solutions to energy challenges facing their communities.
- Central ELY Conference in Brussels. This conference will serve as a culmination of the project, bringing together stakeholders from across Europe to discuss key findings, share best practices, and explore opportunities for collaboration with at least 50 participants from transnational. environmental and educational NGOs, European Parliament Factions, European Commission. The central conference will provide a platform for presenting the results of the project, including insights gained from the decentralised conferences and other project activities It will also offer networking opportunities and workshops to further engage participants in discussions.

Target groups:
- Young People (18-25): This group includes adolescents and young adults who are of school leaving or university age. They are a key demographic for energy literacy education as they represent the future workforce and decision-makers. By educating young people about energy technologies, climate change, and sustainability, we can empower them to become informed and active citizens in the transition to energy.
- Educators and Trainers: This group comprises teachers, instructors, trainers, and education professionals responsible for delivering energy literacy education and training programs.
- Young People, Educators and Trainers from marginalised communities: These communities include individuals facing socio-economic disadvantages, ethnic minorities, migrants, refugees, and people with disabilities. Marginalised communities face barriers to accessing education and training opportunities and are disproportionately affected by energy related challenges such as energy poverty and environmental degradation. Our project aims to include these communities in energy education and training initiatives. We specifically target associations that organise these communities with our train the-trainers and direct training activities to counteract the educational deprivation effects.
- Policy Makers and Stakeholders: This group includes policymakers at local, national, and European levels, as well as other stakeholders involved in energy policy development,
implementation, and advocacy. By engaging these groups, we aim to raise awareness about the importance of energy education, influence policy decisions, and promote the integration of energy initiatives into broader policy frameworks.
- General Public: While not a specific demographic group, the general public represents a broad audience that benefits from increased awareness and understanding of energy issues. Materials will be freely available online for the general public.